tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77943867931708039722018-03-19T01:35:42.789-04:00Digital Body LanguageDiscussions and ideas around Demand Generation, Marketing Automation, Lead Scoring, Nurture Marketing, and using EloquaSteven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.comBlogger204125DigitalBodyLanguagehttps://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-21630728328646658262011-12-05T10:48:00.003-05:002011-12-05T10:59:51.376-05:00Social Media and RevenueWhen I gave a presentation on <a href="https://eloquacorp.adobeconnect.com/_a1013579716/p2l9pbc24hd/?launcher=false&amp;fcsContent=true&amp;pbMode=normal">Social Media and Revenue</a> at Eloqua Experience recently, I was blown away by the great reaction to it.<span style=""> </span>I wanted to dig in a bit into where social media is in most of today’s businesses.<span style=""> </span>In a lot of ways, social media today is like “digital” a decade ago.<span style=""> </span>There was a wide recognition that you had to “do digital”, but it was very much separate from “marketing”.<span style=""> </span><br /> <p class="MsoNormal">Social media today, in a lot of organizations is like that.<span style=""> </span>There’s marketing, and then there’s “social media”.<span style=""> </span>In this presentation, I wanted to dig in a bit and showcase (with a lot of hands-on demos), how social media can drive actual revenue in businesses today.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I do this, in this presentation, through the lens of the <a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/how-to-beat-the-sp-500/">5 RPIs (Revenue Performance Indicators) </a>that the best Revenue Performance Management practitioners use to drive their businesses.<span style=""> </span>It’s a fairly long presentation, and covers a fair few topics.<span style=""> </span>We recorded the same presentation from Eloqua Experience in a better format to share, I hope you’ll enjoy it:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://eloquacorp.adobeconnect.com/_a1013579716/p2l9pbc24hd/?launcher=false&amp;fcsContent=true&amp;pbMode=normal"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 302px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7D5H0QcMkWE/Ttzo4lHnB8I/AAAAAAAACD4/lCdmOq0Xqp4/s400/SocialMediaAndRevenuePresentation.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682672888569071554" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://eloquacorp.adobeconnect.com/_a1013579716/p2l9pbc24hd/?launcher=false&amp;fcsContent=true&amp;pbMode=normal"><span style="font-size:85%;">(click the above presentation, or this link, to view)</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/LPdJIhRbFII" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com1http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2011/12/social-media-and-revenue.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-64724812939329362192011-01-03T09:00:00.000-05:002011-01-03T09:00:08.998-05:00Virgin America tackles cross-identity marketingI just took a flight on <a href="http://www.virginamerica.com/">Virgin America</a> from San Francisco to Toronto. With the holidays, Google Chrome and Virgin America have teamed up to provide inflight WiFi for free, so I was more productive on the flight than any flight I have taken before. I’ve become a big fan of Virgin America as they seem to be innovating quite a bit on the inflight experience. At the same time, an interesting thing happened that caught my attention and made me wonder about their innovations in the marketing realm also. While it might have been a coincidence, I suspect that it was not and they are pushing the frontiers of cross-identity marketing.<br /><br />I purchased a meal on the flight (seat-back TV with touch-screen food ordering, nice.), and as part of that I asked for a receipt, and typed in my email address. I’m always a fan of seeing what various companies do with their marketing, so I provided permission to include me in their marketing database. Sure enough, within 30 minutes, Twitter notified me that Virgin America was following me. As I had just engaged with them, this was not something I saw as intrusive, so I of course followed back. Now they have opened up a new channel of interaction with me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TQUjsK--PLI/AAAAAAAAB2M/e-87tBMlGdA/s1600/VirginAmericaFollow.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 98px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TQUjsK--PLI/AAAAAAAAB2M/e-87tBMlGdA/s400/VirginAmericaFollow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549881357573700786" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Technologically, I’m guessing this was fully automated. Their follow notification says they use <a href="http://www.sprinklr.com/">Sprinklr</a>, which may offer this capability, I’m not sure. Regardless of the exact technology used by Virgin America in this case, the concept is simple. All that is needed is to recognize the match between different identities (my email address and my Twitter handle), and then follow.<br /><br />The point, however, is interesting. People today exist, and communicate across many different identities. The role of marketing is essentially one of communicating based on understanding of a person and their identity. If you, as a marketer, in B2B or B2C are not doing your best to jump on opportunities to identify different identities, and then take the needed steps to engage, you may be missing a significant opportunity to broaden your engagement with your buyers throughout the overall <a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/">revenue engine.</a><br /><br />Are you, as a B2B marketer, exploring techniques similar to this? Do you identify and engage with your buyers across a broader set of identities than you did before? Is it working for you?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/70JJaRy4Gxk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com2http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2011/01/virgin-america-tackles-cross-identity.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-58463768025166292402010-12-20T09:00:00.001-05:002010-12-20T09:00:05.757-05:00Can Marketing Really be a Revenue Engine?It's a key question in today's business environment - can marketing really be a revenue engine, or is this current energy around marketing driving revenue just a fad that will blow over. I was truly honored to host a panel at Dreamforce to discuss that question with three of the very best in the field.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grdebNYGUhk"><img style="float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 248px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TQ1qT4KLXFI/AAAAAAAAB5M/YdioB_AFsh0/s400/YouTubeMarketingAsRevenueEngine_Dreamforce.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552210805342821458" border="0" /></a>In this panel discussion, Michael Williams of <a href="http://www.mcafee.com">McAfee</a>, Daniel Greenberg of <a href="http://www.trialpay.com">TrialPay</a>, and Chris Boorman of <a href="http://www.informatica.com">Informatica </a>dug into the question from three very interesting angles and showed exactly what they had done in their respective businesses to rethink marketing as a revenue engine and drive business for the organization.<br /><br />If you've been thinking about <a href="http://www.eloqua.com/topics/marketing-automation.html">marketing automation</a> as an investment, wondering what the excitement is over the new <a href="http://www.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/">revenue performance management space</a>, wondering how you can take your own team forward, or looking for some interesting metrics and KPIs on marketing's performance, this video is worth the watch.<br /><br />If you find this presentation interesting, or want to look more deeply at some of the metrics that were talked about feel free to have a deeper look at how each <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Eloqua/is-marketing-a-revenue-engine">revenue engine was build by looking at it on SlideShare</a>.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/0BAeFOsDj7U" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com1http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/12/can-marketing-really-be-revenue-engine.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-14964703552729092262010-12-13T09:00:00.000-05:002010-12-13T09:00:11.144-05:00Four Interesting Trends from Dreamforce<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TQQwFzW3CLI/AAAAAAAAB2E/4Z480ukqVcI/s1600/DreamforceEloqua.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 229px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TQQwFzW3CLI/AAAAAAAAB2E/4Z480ukqVcI/s400/DreamforceEloqua.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549613517070862514" border="0" /></a>Last week I had the pleasure of wandering the floor at Dreamforce, <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/">Salesforce.com</a>’s annual conference. As the SaaS conference of the year, it’s a great time to get a pulse on how everyone is thinking about the next few years. This year, I spent a lot of time talking with the exhibiting ISVs, both large and small, and as I did so, I found a few key themes that resonated.<br /><p class="MsoNormal">At Eloqua, we’ve been talking about <a href="http://www.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/">Revenue Performance Management</a> for a while now, and it was good to see that many of the themes that are driving that are common across other ISVs in the ecosystem. Here are four themes I noticed as I chatted with vendors on the show floor:<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) Data is Increasingly Critical: </span> One clear trend was the increasing importance of data to those focused on driving revenue. Both as a source of new conversations, and as a source of continually updated insight into a buyer’s fit, data is one of the most important RPM stories of the next few years. Salesforce.com has clearly made a significant investment in this area with their acquisition of (and deep integration of) Jigsaw as a data cloud, but folks like <a href="http://www.hoovers.com/">Hoovers</a>, <a href="http://www.dnb.com/">D&amp;B</a>, and <a href="http://www.strikeiron.com/">StrikeIron </a>were very present on the show floor with data sourcing, append, and cleansing services.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Communication Contributes to Buyer Insight: </span>There were many vendors who provided communication tools, ranging from PDF trackers to videoconferencing tools and Webinar providers. This was not new, but in each conversation with these providers, including <a href="http://www.vitrium.com/">Vitrium</a>, <a href="http://www.readytalk.com/">ReadyTalk</a>, <a href="http://www.ilinc.com/">iLinc</a>, and more, their focus was on how the use of that communication tool by a buyer can provide rich insight into a buyers intentions. By leveraging attendance data as a key part of a buyer’s digital body language, marketers and sales people are much better armed.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Integration Must Be Seamless:</span> Salesforce.com has long focused on the need to seamlessly tie together all interactions with customers, and this viewpoint is spreading throughout the entire buying process. Integration providers like <a href="http://www.castiron.com/">Cast Iron</a>, <a href="http://www.informatica.com/">Informatica</a>, and <a href="http://www.pervasive.com/">Pervasive</a> had packed booths as visitors looked to understand how to seamlessly tie together every pre-purchase interaction, whether in social media, search, webinars or in any other communication vehicle.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">4) 2011 will be the Year of Analytics: </span>It is now beginning to be possible to see the entire buying process from end to end. With that possibility, <a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/">revenue analytics</a> jumps to the forefront as an extremely hot area. Both on the floor and in the track sessions, executives were asking about the right metrics, measurements, and KPIs to measure in order to ensure that their revenue engines were running in the most efficient manner possible</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I have never been more excited about the RPM space, and seeing the breadth of solutions on display at Dreamforce tells me that others quite definitely share this excitement. 2011 will be an exciting year indeed.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/w4c8wpvKlTo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/12/four-interesting-trends-from-dreamforce.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-88810858851055885182010-11-19T10:57:00.002-05:002010-11-19T11:04:04.626-05:00Cartoon: Who is creating content for your company?Today's my first attempt at cartooning (okay, not really, all the hard work was done by gifted cartoonist <a href="http://www.bonusart.com">Brady Bonus</a>). I hope you enjoy it! <br /><br />First posted this morning on <a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/eloqua-woods-content-cartoon/">It's All About Revenue</a>:<br /><img src="http://blog.eloqua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Eloqua-Steve-Woods-Social-Media-Content-Cartoon.jpg" /><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/JkZpFnd-OBs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com9http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/11/cartoon-who-is-creating-content-for.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-30903014966953761722010-11-16T09:00:00.001-05:002010-11-16T09:00:01.031-05:00The Changing Dimensions of Lead FlowOne of the more interesting ways of assessing the <a href="http://www.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/">revenue performance</a> of an organization that we looked at in thinking about <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/building-benchmarks-3-main-approaches.html">revenue benchmarking</a> was via an overall plan (whether just an adjustment of historicals, or a forward-looking revenue projection). However, in building an end-to-end plan for managing your overall revenue performance, it is important to stay aware of how the “dimensions” change over time. As a marketer or salesperson interacting with a prospective buying audience, how that audience is defined changes as a more direct connection is made with them. While this change is unimportant if each stage is dealt with separately, it becomes important to understand and model correctly as the entire process begins to be viewed with the same lens.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TEShEbvqouI/AAAAAAAABuY/xNCnVhBbkEM/s1600/DimensionsOfRevenue.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TEShEbvqouI/AAAAAAAABuY/xNCnVhBbkEM/s400/DimensionsOfRevenue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495694542838080226" border="0" /></a>- At the earliest stages of interaction with buyers, as they are just entering into the awareness and education stage, the metrics that are <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/marketing-dashboard-active-discovery.html">trackable are around interactions and views</a>. Whether it is views of a banner ad, anonymous visitors on a website, or searches being performed against key phrases, these views are often anonymous and may occur multiple times for the same individual.<br /><br />- As individual prospects become known, uniquely identifying them by an identifier such as an email address or other id becomes possible. At this point, multiple interactions with one person can be tied together and that individuals actions can begin to qualify them as potentially being a marketing qualified lead.<br /><br />- As a marketing qualified lead is handed to the sales team, and an opportunity is created to explore the interest that is expressed, the opportunity is generally with the purchasing company, with multiple interested individuals associated to it.<br /><br />- The opportunity itself, as it is explored in further detail, will begin to have an approximation of size associated with it. Depending on what is being sold, this is associated with an annual contract value, total deal size, or other measurement of bookings.<br /><br />- When a deal is closed, and services begin to be rendered, this bookings number will translate to a flow of revenue, based on the appropriate accounting standards being used.<br /><br />At each point in an overall plan that a change in the "dimension" of what we're measuring will take place, this transition must be taken into account. If a conversion rate between website traffic and inquiries, or between leads and sales opportunities, is being benchmarked against as part of the plan, it must take this change in dimension into account. In most cases, this shift in dimensions can be built in as part of any conversion rate that is used in an applicable situation. For example, if 15 opportunities are created out of 1000 leads, a 1.5% conversion rate can be quoted (although I'm sure that the more rigorous mathematicians amongst us will cringe), and planned against without problem.<br /><br />However, it’s important to realize that this change in dimensions did take place, and if any change in buying pattern or marketing approach takes place, a change in the number of individuals involved in a deal could shift this number without any underlying change in the likelihood of an opportunity to be created.<br /><br />In your planning, are you clear on what the "dimension" is that you're measuring at each stage? An individual? A company? A dollar?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/p0s-DjIO05Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/11/changing-dimensions-of-lead-flow.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-70518360386346863902010-11-10T09:00:00.001-05:002011-02-18T17:24:20.427-05:005 Things You Shouldn’t Expect from Marketing AutomationMarketing automation is becoming a vital tool in today’s B2B space, as more marketers need to gain a better understanding of their customers’ buying cycles and increase their ROI from every campaign. <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TNlm7MRGV_I/AAAAAAAABz8/KIiVqBN9v70/s1600/MarketingNirvana.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 296px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537570383919994866" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TNlm7MRGV_I/AAAAAAAABz8/KIiVqBN9v70/s400/MarketingNirvana.jpg" /></a>However, many marketers become enamored with the latest technology and jump into marketing automation without considering the human investment and business processes needed to make their efforts successful. If you focus on the technology over the planning, you won’t have the backbone necessary to support your marketing automation efforts and convert more leads into sales. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Whether you’re considering <a href="http://www.eloqua.com/topics/marketing-automation.html">marketing automation</a> or have already begun the process, you must understand exactly what you can – and can’t – achieve with the software. Here are five things you shouldn’t expect marketing automation software to do: </p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ol><li><b>Model how your buyers buy.</b> A key to marketing automation is reframing your thinking to focus on your customers’ buying process rather than your selling process. Before you implement a marketing automation program, you should map how your customers move through every stage of the buying cycle and become aware of their questions and concerns throughout each stage. </li><p></p><li><b>Define buyer personas.</b> For your marketing and sales efforts to succeed, you need to understand your buyers’ challenges. One of the best ways to get inside a buyer’s head is to develop a profile of your ideal customer that includes his/her demographic, firmographic and psychographic details. You can even give your ideal customer a name and hang a photo of him/her near your computer. <p>Buyer personas enable you to create targeted marketing materials that speak to your customers’ exact needs. If your marketing automation program sends your buyers information that is off-target, they will ignore your messages. </p></li><p></p><li><b>Get sales and marketing to agree on what a qualified lead looks like.</b> How often does your sales department complain about the quality of the leads you send them? Unless your marketing department has sales intuition (the ability to read your prospects’ behaviour and anticipate their next actions), defining a good lead will be difficult to do on your own. Meet with your sales team and discuss what makes a lead “qualified.” </li><p></p><li><b>Create interesting and relevant content.</b> Many marketers fail to consider the amount of educational content necessary to address their buyers’ concerns. For example, a customer in the early stages of the buying cycle might want to read articles and white papers, while someone who is closer to making a purchasing decision is more likely to request sales literature or product demos. While a marketing automation system will deliver the content, you’ll still need to develop a content strategy and create engaging communications. </li><p></p><li><b>Engage with others through social media.</b> Marketing automation allows you to communicate with your leads without human interaction. However, human interaction is vital to your success with social media. Although some aspects of social media can be automated (such as inserting sharable links into emails and landing pages), you still need to personally interact with your online communities. One-on-one conversations with buyers can help you discover what messages are the most relevant to them. </li></ol><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">After you lay the initial groundwork, marketing automation software can help you eliminate repetitive marketing tasks and increase your ROI. Here are three things marketing automation can do for you: </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ol><li><b>Understand individual buyers.</b> Marketing automation software collects powerful data about your buyers to help you understand their interests and needs. The software follows the footprints buyers leave on your website and shows you what content they have accessed. This means you can gain a deeper understanding of your customers and have an advantage over competitors who are not using marketing automation.</li><p></p><li><b>Deliver the right message – at the right time – to each buyer.</b> One of the biggest benefits of marketing automation software is its ability to deliver targeted content to your leads throughout every stage of the buying cycle. For example, if a lead responds to a campaign about your XYZ solution, your program can send her a case study about a customer who achieved strong business gains after implementing your solution. Imagine how this targeted information can educate your leads and convert more of them into customers. </li><p></p><li><b>Identify the right leads for sales.</b> Once you and your sales team identify what makes a lead “qualified,” marketing automation can help you deliver those leads to sales. Your sales team can view specific data about your prospects, including the links they clicked, the registration forms they completed and their lead scores. This detailed information makes it easier for your sales team to reach their quotas. </li></ol><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">A successful marketing automation program involves more than just implementing the latest technology. Have you considered the sales and marketing processes you’ll need to make it work for you?<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">(this post originally ran as a <a href="http://www.astadia.com/blog/5--Things-You-Shouldnt-Expect-from-Marketing-Automation.html">guest post on Astadia's marketing automation blog</a>)<br /></p><div><br />.<br /></div><p></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/w3igeyxxb5E" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodsnoreply@blogger.com2http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/11/5-things-you-shouldnt-expect-from.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-90432472235672855872010-10-19T09:00:00.000-04:002010-10-19T09:00:02.237-04:00Sales Handoff and the Net Quality ScoreOne of the most controversial and challenging areas of any <a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/">revenue engine</a> is the hand-off process from marketing to sales. It is this transition that bears the brunt of all the inter-organizational process differences, motivation differences, and politics. This makes it a vital area to focus on in building the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/building-benchmarks-3-main-approaches.html">benchmarks and dashboards</a> that will help optimize overall performance.<br /><br />The nurturing and discovery of qualified leads, while vitally important, is of limited value unless the hand-off to sales is efficient and optimized. As this aspect of the process involves a significant behavioral element in the managing of sales team engagement with the lead flow process, it can be the source of many easily remedied revenue engine challenges.<br /><br />The first aspect of understanding this element of the process is to understand the volume and quality of leads flowing to each territory. Volume is, of course, a simple metric to dashboard, and volume differences by territory can be quickly identified.<br /><br />Quality, however, is often a more important indicator of eventual success. While MQLs may be defined as any lead that falls into a fit and engagement profile that defines it as an A1, A2, or B1, this does not mean that all MQLs are equal. Understanding the quality of leads passed to each territory is vital in ascertaining whether any revenue challenges being seen are a result of poor team performance or poor lead quality.<br /><br />Most useful in this is a metric called the Net Quality Score that indicates the overall balance of high and low quality leads being sent to each rep or territory. To calculate the Net Quality Score, first split leads into <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/09/fit-engagement-and-mqls-mapping-lead.html">high (eg A1s), medium (eg A2s), and low (eg B1s and B2s)</a> categories. The Net Quality score is the number of high quality leads minus the number of low quality leads, divided by the total number of leads. Scores can range from -100% to +100%, and higher scores indicate a higher average lead quality.<br /><br />This quality score can quickly pinpoint issues, for example in the following dashboard, it can be seen that while the Central region is receiving a large number of leads, they are generally of very low quality. This may result in sales team effectiveness that is much lower than expected without being the fault of the sales team in terms of performance.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKYBN2iyU-I/AAAAAAAABy0/zihW7gVFNcs/s1600/LeadHandoffNetQualityScore.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 195px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKYBN2iyU-I/AAAAAAAABy0/zihW7gVFNcs/s400/LeadHandoffNetQualityScore.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523103330507838434" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What Happens After the Handoff?</span><br /><br />With this understanding of which territories, product lines, and salespeople are provided with leads, and of what average quality, the next step is to provide insight into the outcome of those leads. Done properly, the disposition of leads by a sales team after they attempt to connect with them should not only trigger a marketing process to correctly handle the leads, but also provide clear insights into the whether any fine tuning of the qualification process may be required. If the leads were unreachable, lacked interest, were not the right role, or only had early stage interest, this insight allows marketing to see whether there are potential quality issues with their leads.<br /><br />Likewise, if certain sales reps are doing a poor job in following up with the leads they are given, this will also show up in the analytics of lead disposition when a MQL to SQO conversion ratio is calculated for each sales person. In the following lead disposition chart, for example, you can see that Bob, Andy and Jane received a large number of leads, but failed to convert many of them to opportunities, instead marking them as unable to connect. Worth noting, however, is that the net number of opportunities created remains on par with the team as the poor conversion rate was masked by the high volume of leads.<br /><br />This may be an indication of a performance or training challenge with these sales reps, or it could be that the volume of leads was so high that they were unable to truly dedicate sufficient effort to each lead.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKYBN-p8kOI/AAAAAAAABys/AiQkZ-6gmfQ/s1600/LeadHandoffConversion.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 152px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKYBN-p8kOI/AAAAAAAABys/AiQkZ-6gmfQ/s400/LeadHandoffConversion.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523103332685353186" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Looking at a Difficult Problem</span><br /><br />How are you analyzing and optimizing your handoff process from marketing to sales? Just delivering leads is not enough, if you're not able to ensure quantity, quality, and follow-up, you may be leaving money on the table.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/iB97X-sRJJ8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com1http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/10/sales-handoff-and-net-quality-score.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-53638658920769773712010-10-12T09:00:00.000-04:002010-10-12T09:00:12.097-04:00How a 99¢ iTunes Download Can Change the B2B Software Industry(this post originally appeared on the <a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/the-interesting-thing-about-99%C2%A2/">"It's All About Revenue"</a> blog)<br /><br />With the popularity of iPhone apps, common software price points have dropped from $39.99–$59.99 to $0.99–$1.49. This trend currently dominates the consumer market, but as a B2B software marketer, you should take notice.<br /><br /><a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/03/23/ipad-to-kickstart-an-8b-tablet-app-market-report/">GigaOM Pro</a> recently forecasted that the market for apps is expected to grow from $183 million in 2010 to $8 billion by 2015. This means consumers will get used to paying low prices for the latest technology and this may change their expectations of how they acquire business software.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Why Does the 99¢ Software Trend Exist? </span><br /><br />Over the past decade, the cost of producing and selling software has plummeted. Many of the up-front expenses have been minimized as new libraries and development tools make it easier for you to put software on the market.<br /><br />In addition:<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">You don’t need a major investment in a sales and accounting team to sell 99¢ software</span>. Developers who use the old digital distribution model need to arrange for credit card processing, set up a bank agreement, handle billing and collect outstanding payments. Delivering your products through full service models like the App Store removes much of this backend work. In exchange for a 30% commission, Apple will take care of your credit card transactions and provide a platform where you can focus solely on your product.</li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Selling through the App Store removes the need for credibility</span>. You’d normally have to spend lots of time and resources to build trust with customers so they would feel comfortable giving you their credit card numbers. However, distributing though a respected entity, such as the App Store, eliminates trust-related hesitations. iTunes customers aren’t required to give out their credit card numbers with every purchase. They simply open an iTunes account and don’t have to worry about fraudulent bank charges from unknown developers. </li></ul><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>You also must submit a software development kit to Apple for approval. Apple will run performance tests to ensure their customers receive software that does what it promises across a variety of platforms.</blockquote><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Marketing costs are minimized</span>. The low costs associated with promoting 99¢ software can make testing this distribution model attractive. Research has shown that the best way to sell apps is by word of mouth. Reviews on popular blogs and YouTube can drive sales and give you plenty of free publicity. The bigger the buzz, the more units you will sell. </li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Huge distribution networks make it profitable to lower your price points</span>. Selling your product through major distribution networks like the App Store lets you reach a new audience and gain brand recognition. Even though you may need to price your app at less than $1.99 to be competitive, the increased number of downloads can make it worthwhile. </li></ul><blockquote>faberNovel recently conducted a study to determine the <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/misteroo/how-to-market-your-app">best practices for iPhone app marketing</a>. They tested several prices for the Paris public transport (RATP) app. When they lowered the price to 0,79€ (approximately 99¢), their sales tripled and 50% of their new customers went on to purchase the full version.</blockquote><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">The sales model allows for discovery through free trials</span>. Offering users a free version of your software is critical to attracting new customers and driving sales of the full version. Free versions are far more likely to rise to the top of the “Most Downloaded” lists, giving you, and your paid version, significantly higher exposure. </li></ul>This trend, of course, goes far beyond Apple, although theirs is the most widely recognized model. Google also acknowledged the importance of 99¢ software in today’s market by adding an apps search to Google Search for mobile. This function not only makes it easy for people to find apps but also gives software developers another reason to seriously consider this trend.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Should You Sell Your Software for 99¢?</span><br /><br />As a B2B software marketer, this is a major trend that you need to be aware of. In all likelihood, you may conclude that it doesn’t make sense to sell your software for 99¢ directly, but in analyzing your market space, this trend changes the overall landscape directly. You should be aware that your competitors, and new market entrants, may take advantage of this new landscape. Whether or not you have considered a 99¢ distribution model, you should think about the following three factors: <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Disruption:</span> It may not make sense for you to offer software at 99¢, but for a new entrant with significantly lower overhead costs because of this trend, it may make sense. Could a new competitor disrupt your space with a 99¢ offering? Have you thought about what could happen to your market space and how you’re prepared to compete? Can you produce a quality competitive offering with minimal investment? </li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Business Model Creativity: </span>When CD sales started to decline, iTunes revolutionized the music industry by selling songs at 99¢, but in doing so creatively changed the offering to include the music, the player, and the software to manage it. To compete in today’s app market, you might also need a more creative business model. Pull your team together to brainstorm new ways you can deliver a “unit of value” to your customers. Should you sell your software in the same way as you are today, or should you change what you sell, and to whom, to create a new business model?</li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Go to Market: </span>Your software might currently appeal to a small audience, such as a buying committee or senior executive, to maximize your ability to sell large deals. However, smaller apps that perform well and generate the most word of mouth tend to attract a much broader range of users. Can you approach your market differently by developing an offering that targets a broad population of end users, rather than a narrow population of executive buyers?</li></ul>If you’re wondering how this model has affected sales of a fully featured software product, read the results of <a href="http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html">The Great 99 Cent Software Experiment of 2010</a>. For 24 hours, Bill Pytlovany sold lifetime memberships to the WinPatrol PLUS system protection utility for 99¢. The regular price was $29.95. Sales during the promo were phenomenal, which made the experiment a success from a financial standpoint. In fact, most of the challenges he faced – high credit card processing fees, pirates and extra work handling orders – would have been resolved if he had used more current sales methods and sold the software through an online transaction system such as the App Store.<br /><br />What about you? Have you analyzed your business and considered what would happen to your market space if a competitor used today’s tools to reinvent your category around a 99¢ price point? Are you prepared?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/H0JtWS1i9nw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodsnoreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-99-itunes-download-can-change-b2b.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-32376457382286587542010-10-05T09:00:00.000-04:002010-10-05T09:00:02.653-04:00Marketing Dashboard: Passive DiscoveryWe spoke recently about various ways of looking at <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/building-benchmarks-3-main-approaches.html">marketing benchmarks </a>and how to better dashboard and analyze the entire <a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/">revenue performance management</a> process. This thinking needs to be applied to all areas of the revenue engine, and each has its own unique challenges.<br /><br />At the earliest stages of the funnel, where buyers first begin to become aware of your company and its solutions is perhaps the most challenging. One of the main ways in which people <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/passive-discovery-vs-active-discovery.html">discover your message</a>, of course, is coming across your messages "passively", through ads, content, and social media sharing.<br /><br />Building an understanding of how your messages are being passively discovered is an interesting challenge. Many of the paid techniques of passive discovery, such as banner advertising, are inherently trackable. However, great content that allows an organization to earn passive discovery is often much less trackable. However, a clear understanding of this element of the revenue process is key to determining where to make important investments.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERoMMiQpJI/AAAAAAAABt0/O-9ahDcJMQg/s1600/EarnedVsPaidAwareness.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 241px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERoMMiQpJI/AAAAAAAABt0/O-9ahDcJMQg/s400/EarnedVsPaidAwareness.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495632004031489170" border="0" /></a>An important metric to start with is an understanding of paid vs earned awareness. This dashboard metric gives you a clear sense of whether prospective buyers in the early stages of their education process are learning about you through paid efforts, such as advertisements, or through your efforts to earn their attention, such as through content marketing. To create this view, chart the traffic to your website by its originating source. Those that arrive from content sites, or without the tracking codes that you place in your online advertisements are most likely earned discovery through your content marketing efforts. Those that arrive with the tracking codes of your online advertising efforts are paid discovery efforts bearing fruit.<br /><br />In charting these two sources of awareness, all <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/marketing-dashboard-active-discovery.html">active discovery, such as referrals from search</a> sites such as Google and Bing, and all natural traffic (visitors who just typed in your website’s address, and were not referred to it), must first be removed. Other sources of traffic, such as from a customer community, or online help portal should also be excluded, as these are individuals who are already aware of who you are and what your solutions are. With these categories of traffic removed, this leaves just the visitors who discover your content, and hence become aware of your solutions, through either paid or earned awareness efforts.<br /><br />This view is instructive in two ways. First, a direct comparison of your paid and earned efforts provides insights into whether opportunities might exist that are not being maximally exploited. If you notice that prospects discovery of your solutions is mainly from paid sources, there is an opportunity to assess whether content marketing efforts may provide a more economically efficient way to drive awareness. If, however, all of your discovery traffic is coming from earned sources, there may be a chance to either re-evaluate whether your current paid awareness efforts could be better targeted, or, if there is an opportunity to increase your paid awareness efforts in order to generate awareness in areas of the market in which you are not currently driving as much awareness as you could be.<br /><br />The second area of value you get from creating and maintaining this view of your revenue engine is that you can understand how your efforts are resulting in more awareness over time. This is most crucial for earned media, as this follows a <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/04/flywheel-and-lightning-strike.html">“fly-wheel” dynamic for growth</a>. Effort this is invested in creating and promoting great content results in a slow and steady growth in awareness. This dynamic is much different than the “lightning strike” dynamic of most paid media efforts where an investment results in a near real-time effect.<br /><br />Calculations of the total audience to which your messages are presented in a way that allows them to be passively discovered is similarly simple for paid audiences, but challenging for earned audiences. For paid audiences, the total coverage of your advertisements (number of “eyeballs”) forms a good audience proxy. However, to calculate the total audience for earned awareness (mostly in the form of content sites that mention your company or solutions), it may be simpler to do this by assuming a known conversion rate and using that to calculate what the overall audience must be, based on traffic.<br /><br />While this technique obviously prevents any insights that might have been gained by understanding and analyzing traffic conversion rates, in earned passive awareness, this is often not something that can be easily optimized as there is very limited control over how and where you are mentioned, so the best action is often simply to drive audience sizes higher through garnering more share of the conversation.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Analyzing Paid Discovery – Advertising and Audience Definitions</span><br /><br />In building a dashboard to show the effectiveness of advertising efforts, the focus is on understanding how to target audiences that will effectively convert into interested buyers. This area of the industry is evolving rapidly, and an important development is in how audiences are defined. Historically, an audience was defined mainly by the content itself, with a thin layer of demographics on top.<br /><br />For example, an industry new site focused on printing technologies in the publishing sector could be assumed to have an audience of people involved in that discipline. Within this audience, advertisers could often <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/05/discoverable-messages-and-direct.html">target by title or organization fit</a> based on declared demographics, but not much more.<br /><br />In today’s online world, this is rapidly changing. The major content networks are beginning to provide the ability to target audiences based on historical activity. For example, those who visit certain pages on your site, or meet certain qualification criteria could be defined as a specific audience, regardless of where they are on the Internet, for having specific ads presented to them.<br /><br />In analyzing advertising campaigns, this analysis of audience becomes critical. While remarketing audiences are likely to have substantially smaller sizes than their mainstream counterparts, they may offer opportunities to convert prospective buyers to MQLs at a much higher rate or present more precise information that is relevant to later stage investigation and validation only.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX68FIYStI/AAAAAAAAByU/ErsUNa94bFw/s1600/AdvertisingConversions.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 442px; height: 128px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX68FIYStI/AAAAAAAAByU/ErsUNa94bFw/s400/AdvertisingConversions.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523096428116200146" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Inbound Links – Earning the Potential to be Discovered</span><br /><br />Traffic to your web properties is the most tangible metric to dashboard when looking at passive discovery. However, when it comes to the efforts to earn this discovery, it is a difficult metric to use in order to guide decisions as it is an aggregate measure of all the content that is linked to. Efforts to build great content and share it with influencers lead to a more measurable metric of inbound links.<br /><br />An inbound link is a link from another site on the web to a page of content on your website. Creating interesting, useful, and valuable content leads to more links, and each link increases the chances that your content will be discovered by those reading about the market space. Obviously, links from higher traffic and more credible sites increase this potential more than links from less relevant sites.<br /><br />To gain an understanding of the success of your content marketing strategy, and areas for improvement, a dashboard of inbound links can be very useful. For each major area of your web properties, such as your main site, blogs, and campaign-specific sites, dashboard the total number of inbound links, the average quality for each inbound link (based on the traffic and credibility of the page the link resides on), and the number of visits generated by that link in the recent time period.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX68MOyO8I/AAAAAAAAByc/6SJHHA7z6BA/s1600/InboundLinks.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 84px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX68MOyO8I/AAAAAAAAByc/6SJHHA7z6BA/s400/InboundLinks.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523096430022114242" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This dashboard view provides insights into the successes and challenges of efforts to create exceptional content that inspires others to link to it. If top level analysis of passive discovery shows levels of performance that are less than expected, an inbound link analysis can identify where the issues might be occurring.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Social Engagement and Passive Discovery</span><br /><br />As social networks grow in importance as a medium through which information is shared, so too do they grow in importance as a place where prospective buyers happen upon information of interest to them and in doing so begin to learn about new solutions and new approaches. Each conversation or engagement that happens in the public domain, whether a discussion on LinkedIn or an interaction on Twitter creates an opportunity for another viewer to see the discussion and engage with the content being talked about.<br /><br />While measurement in this area is evolving quickly, even a simple view of which social networks are seeing a large number of links to your content being shared, the total traffic to your content that is driven by each of these networks, and whether this traffic is successfully turning into inquiries.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX68Z8kiGI/AAAAAAAAByk/svvxU4S3WoU/s1600/SocialSharedLinks.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 91px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX68Z8kiGI/AAAAAAAAByk/svvxU4S3WoU/s400/SocialSharedLinks.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523096433703815266" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thinking about Passive Discovery</span><br /><br />Whether paid (advertising) or unpaid (content, social), this top end of the funnel is crucial for driving new business. Without great dashboards, it is hard to optimize and grow it.<br /><br />How do you think about, measure, and analyze the ways by which people "come across" your content?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/BNNxb5zDeQw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/10/marketing-dashboard-passive-discovery.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-28431636480974132782010-10-01T11:21:00.000-04:002010-10-01T11:21:47.283-04:00Building Benchmarks - 3 Main ApproachesIn order to build a high performance<a href="http://blog.eloqua.com/revenue-performance-management/"> revenue management process</a>, not only must it be instrumented and measured to allow you to understand current state, but it must be continually improved. As the market, technologies, competitors, and your own capabilities change, you must continually adapt, learn, and optimize.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX2Q_ZgsVI/AAAAAAAAByM/CHoYkUdCfNc/s1600/Scoreboard.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 297px; height: 184px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TKX2Q_ZgsVI/AAAAAAAAByM/CHoYkUdCfNc/s400/Scoreboard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523091289796555090" border="0" /></a>However, to do so, it’s important to understand where in the overall revenue process you are performing well, and where you are performing poorly. This requires benchmarking your performance and guiding continual improvements in areas that are most in need or most critical for overall revenue performance. Over the next few posts, we'll look at ways to think about building these benchmarks.<br /><br />Before we do that, however, we need to look at how we are approaching the challenge. Revenue performance benchmarks can be built in three main ways; against alternatives to ensure that the most effective and efficient way of accomplishing a tactical objective is being used, against a plan to ensure that each element of the revenue performance process is contributing at the required level, and against best in class companies to ensure that the performance levels being seen are maximized to the level that the best performers in your industry are seeing.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Against Alternatives</span><br /><br />The best way to start with benchmarking is to look at individual components of the revenue process and ensure that each element of the process is performing as well as alternative options. To accomplish this, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">a clear comparison metric needs to be established that can be seen as equivalent</span>. If, for example, a webinar and a whitepaper marketing campaign are being compared as alternatives, they can only be reasonably compared with a clear definition of what the outputs are.<br /><br />If, for example, the immediate goal of the two marketing campaigns is driving marketing qualified leads for sales, then that metric allows a fair comparison. Metrics such as website traffic and raw inquiries will be too high in the funnel to be meaningful, and metrics such as sales pipeline movement or closed business will be too disconnected from the initiative to be useful.<br />For this reason, when benchmarking alternatives, only initiatives that are truly alternatives for each other in that they drive the same intended outcome can reasonably be compared. A humorous video that drives awareness cannot be reasonably compared to a webinar campaign that creates marketing qualified leads, and neither can be compared to an inside sales campaign that drives business towards close.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Against a Plan</span><br /><br />To benchmark efforts across the entire revenue performance spectrum, we first need to develop a comprehensive plan that models the full buying process from beginning to end, and provides conversion metrics at each stage in the process. With this plan in place, the volumes, velocity, and conversion rates that are achieved can be compared to the planned rates, and adjustments can be made accordingly.<br /><br />In building this plan, key gaps in revenue performance often become visible, especially at points where a transition between siloed groups takes place. Understanding these gaps, and planning efforts and investments to remedy them and bring the conversion rates within the gaps to a reasonable benchmark level can have a very positive effect on overall revenue performance.<br /><br />While the ultimate goal is, of course, a plan that looks into the future and maps revenue efforts to company objectives, the simplest plan to get started with is an incremental adjustment of past performance. For this reason, clear dashboarding of the existing state is vital in building a forward looking plan.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Against Best in Class</span><br /><br />With the comprehensive view of revenue performance that this planning effort allows, benchmarking can now be done against best in class companies. Although each business experiences a different situation, benchmarking revenue funnel metrics against best in class companies allows quick identification of potential areas of improvement.<br /><br />With an industry vertical, similar realities of buyer dynamics and sophistication may allow insightful comparisons of funnel sizes, overall buying velocity, and conversion rates. Similarly, comparisons against other organizations that share the same general go-to-market strategy (such as through a free trial program), or are comparable in terms of deal sizes, may provide valuable insights in terms of conversion rates and response profiles to specific marketing or sales efforts.<br /><br />Now that marketing automation has made analysis of the entire revenue engine more readily available, we are beginning to see the ability to provide cross-company and cross-industry <a href="http://www.conversation.eloqua.com/content/September2010_Video">marketing benchmarks</a> that provide insight into what best in class performance truly looks like.<br /><br />Each style of benchmarking adds value in its own unique way, and the more visibility you gain into the performance of your revenue engine, the more you are able to make needed optimizations and improvements.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Current State of Benchmarking?</span><br /><br />As we begin a series of posts to look at benchmarking, how are you approaching the challenge today? Do you feel you have dashboards in place? Do you compare tactical alternatives? Is there a quarterly or annual plan that you measure your performance against across the entire revenue engine? Do you compare yourself to best in class benchmarks?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/ccDpiMbFbIo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/building-benchmarks-3-main-approaches.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-52266407875994669642010-09-14T09:00:00.000-04:002010-09-14T09:00:07.722-04:00Who and What Do We Trust?As the role of the relationship-based sales person shifts, with buyers collecting more of their information online, both prior to, and during conversations with sales people, we need to pay close attention to the most crucial aspect of a sale. Trust. It is trust that every relationship has as its foundation. However, with the changing dynamic of how the conversation happens, there is also a changing dynamic of how trust is developed.<br /><br />In classic relationship-based sales, the buyer grew to trust the individual salesperson. Conversations were typically face to face, and the relationship incorporated many “social” elements such as dinner, drinks, golf outings, or sports events. Over time, this built up a level of trust between the buyer and the seller and allowed the deal to move through its challenging parts.<br /><br />Now, with significantly less face-to-face time being spent, the dynamics of this trust building are changing. Trust now manifests itself in a variety of ways, which together either contribute to, or detract from, a sales opportunity. Replacing, enhancing, or complementing the trust we historically had in the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/09/relationship-sales-and-todays-new-buyer.html">direct sales rep</a> is the trust we place in the following sources:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Peers: </span></span><br />The most powerful and immediate trusted source, of course, are our peers. People we know, have existing relationships with, and respect are the most powerful <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/01/dynamics-of-influencers.html">influencers</a> of our decision making. Both because of shared experiences, and a perception of them being free of bias, we are far more likely to trust recommendations from our peer group.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Online Communities: </span></span><br />In a similar vein, we tend to trust the recommendations of online communities, where individuals may not be known to us, but we share a common thread such as the use of a particular solution, a professional discipline, or a love of travel.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Online Personas: </span></span><br />Within these communities, active individuals often stand out. Through creating great content, intelligent commentary, and frequent presence, they build familiarity in the same way that repeated light encounters with a neighbour or office co-worker begin to build our familiarity with them. As this familiarity builds, a sense of trust builds with it.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Personal Brands: </span></span><br />Taken further, many individuals have become so well known individually within a given space that their views are given significant credence. As buyers, there may be significant trust placed in the views, opinions, and perspectives of these strong individual brands within a space.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Company Online Brands: </span></span><br />The overall <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/07/logo-is-not-brand-b2b-marketing-and.html">reputation and brand of a company</a> is greatly influenced by the transparency of social media. Numerous examples exist of companies who attempted to maintain a difference between what they wanted their reputation to be, and what the reality of their product or service was. Social media has collapsed this difference, and in doing so may have an overall positive effect on buyer trust. If a company brand becomes, through community discussion and reputation, a realistic impression of what that company truly is, it becomes something that can more easily be trusted.<br /><br />As trust shifts from being mainly in the purview of face to face sales reps, and towards a variety of other sources, marketing organizations need to ensure that buyers trust what is being offered. However, with trust itself being a virtually unmeasurable concept, and the source of trust being even more difficult, this provides marketers with a significant challenge.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Are you measuring how and why prospective buyers build their trust in you?</span><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/WSxhb7YzAlQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com4http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/09/who-and-what-do-we-trust.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-72729651523316937402010-09-07T09:00:00.001-04:002010-09-07T09:00:10.985-04:005 things to do to get ready for coming communication shift<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S4Mt9woF-cI/AAAAAAAABdU/-VUJVShwyVQ/s1600-h/EvolutionOfCommunication.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 355px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S4Mt9woF-cI/AAAAAAAABdU/-VUJVShwyVQ/s400/EvolutionOfCommunication.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441243313842026946" border="0" /></a>A while ago, I wrote a piece on the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/04/next-transition-in-communication.html">next transition in communication</a> that sparked a number of conversations. The idea explored in that article (and the explanation for the diagram on the right) was that the major search engines will next apply their computing and analysis horsepower to understanding <span style="font-style: italic;">who is talking to whom about what</span>. <br /><br />As they do that, it may become possible to have <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/passive-discovery-vs-active-discovery.html">passive discovery</a> of interesting conversations guided by the algorithms of Google and Bing and their analysis of vast amounts of social media data. Much like Amazon’s book recommendation systems which looks at “people like us” and sees what they are interested in, Google and Bing may soon be able to accurately detect and show specific conversations that are most likely to be of interest to each person. <br /><br />This coming transition promises to be as disruptive as any transition in communication before it. Here are five things you can do to get ready:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) Dive Into Social:</span> Watch what the major search engines are doing to <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/buzz-about-google-buzz-6-things.html">aggregate and understand social media activity</a>. Where this effort lands is difficult to predict, but the more involved you are with social, the more aware you will be of the effect of these efforts on how your conversations are being discovered.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Understand the Influencers in your Market:</span> Not just the major press and analyst influencers, but the bloggers and smaller influencers in the space who will most likely cause your message to be “discovered” if they join the conversation. Engage and encourage your entire team in <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/01/influencers-advocates-and-mainstream.html">building strong relationships with influencers</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Create an “Information Concierge” Role:</span> ensure that the high quality information you have finds its way into the conversations in the first place through identifying related conversations, and presenting your information, via an <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/01/four-reasons-for-information-concierge.html">information concierge</a>, in the context of those conversations.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4) Be Findable:</span> understand, and continually improve, how “discoverable” your content is with <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/10/natural-search-in-b2b-marketing.html">natural search queries</a>. Not only will this ensure a discipline of search-friendly practices, but it will guide your company culture towards one that thrives on the continuous creation of great content.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5) Watch the Search Majors</span>: As Google deepens its <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-display-ads-and-b2b-marketing.html">investment in display advertising</a>, and Bing makes similar moves, their ability to target “discovered” conversations will continually increase. Being aware of, and on top of, these investments will ensure you are well positioned to take advantage of them.<br /><br /><br />Each major transition in communication is disruptive, but those who anticipate, prepare, and get in front of the transitions stand to benefit from them significantly. <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(this article, in part, first appeared as a </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/568751/the-next-transition-in-communication">guest post on SavvyB2B</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> - it has since been modified and split into two from the original)</span><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/GHQh-4Ut8j4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/09/5-things-to-do-to-get-ready-for-coming.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-4519450607521759162010-08-31T09:00:00.001-04:002010-08-31T09:00:01.104-04:00Measuring the Unmeasurable: InfluencersOne of the most important ways to "get the word out" and have your message <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/passive-discovery-vs-active-discovery.html">discovered</a> is to have good relationships with <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/01/dynamics-of-influencers.html">key market influencers</a>. However, while this is important, it can be notoriously difficult to measure.<br /><br />We need a new way of measuring how engaged we are with each influencer in the market. Whereas historically, there may have been only a few influencers (the major analysts and media outlets), and maintaining relationships with them was the purview of the PR and AR groups, now there are a broader set of influencers and maintaining those relationships is the purview of everyone on the team. Measuring this effort, however, can prove challenging. The following framework is a starting point for assessing your ability to influence the market influencers.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) Value of a Publication</span></span><br /><br />The first step is to assess the publishers and publications you would like to influence. I use the term “publication” and “publisher” very loosely to refer to any writers, bloggers, thought leaders, and content contributors online. These are the individuals and outlets where influence is useful and interesting. Each publication that is of interest should be assessed (subjectively) and given a rating of one to three stars. This is based on their readership, reputation, presence, and whether they appear in the search results for key terms your buying audience is looking for.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Relationship Activity</span><br /></span><br />With this step complete, and knowing which publications you are hoping to influence, you next need to track how active you are in maintaining those relationships. As most, if not all, of these individuals are online writers, this activity can be tracked very objectively. Each blog comment, each Twitter conversation, each LinkedIn discussion that someone on your team has with an influencer is a relationship activity. Each is an opportunity to build awareness, convey messages, introduce new perspectives, or develop a deeper level of trust. Tracking this activity, across your entire team including subject matter experts, gives you a clear metric on whether those relationships are being actively maintained.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Relationship Strength</span><br /></span><br />For each relationship, it’s important to also assess whether you feel that the relationship is a strong one. This is a subjective measurement, and can only be done by the people involved in each relationship. Use a similar scale of one to three stars to show your assessment of the strength of each relationship.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >4) Mentions<br /></span><br />Now, with these relationships understood and assessed, you can look at whether this effort is bearing fruit in terms of mentions of your company, your solutions, and your views on the market. This metric is only useful when viewed as a trend over time, as different publications with different niche focuses will naturally mention company and product names in a wide range of frequencies. An upwards trend in mentions is generally a good thing and shows a positive influence.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >5) Sentiment<br /></span><br />However, mentions are usually only good if they are neutral or positive mentions – that highlight your strengths, key aspects of your reputation, and your views on the market. Although there is some good progress happening in the realm of technology solutions for sentiment analysis, this is often quicker and easier to do in a B2B environment using a subjective assessment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S1XbEEXBlVI/AAAAAAAABYU/Fa9JSTPn5Ng/s1600-h/InfluencerMeasurement.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 116px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S1XbEEXBlVI/AAAAAAAABYU/Fa9JSTPn5Ng/s400/InfluencerMeasurement.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428485788801275218" border="0" /></a><br /><br />With each of these dimensions analyzed, you can begin to gather a picture of how your overall team is influencing the key influencers in your market. Over time, these relationships will develop and grow, and can become an extremely effective way that your message reaches your intended audience.<br /><br />It's not perfect, by a long stretch, but this framework at least provides a way to look at the challenge of measuring influencers and efforts to work with them. How are you approaching this challenge? Any different measurement frameworks you use?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/f9yTlYR_KNg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com2http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/08/measuring-unmeasurable-influencers.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-83190058768836141342010-08-24T09:00:00.000-04:002010-08-24T09:00:10.667-04:00Brand Choice: “vision of perfection” or “perfect visibility”<span style="font-weight: bold;">A "Goof-up" can be a great social media marketing opportunity.</span><br /><br />The <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/03/membership-has-its-privileges-best.html">transparency</a> required of us in a social-media led world causes a number of fairly wrenching paradoxes. One of the clearest of these is the difference between marketing’s goal of being a “vision of perfection” and social media transparency’s goal of “perfect visibility”.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S6fr7JX6RvI/AAAAAAAABgc/JhXOZWZQ4n8/s1600-h/VisionPerfect.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 323px; height: 327px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S6fr7JX6RvI/AAAAAAAABgc/JhXOZWZQ4n8/s400/VisionPerfect.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451585275316291314" border="0" /></a>The reality is, none of our organizations, our products, or our services, are perfect. However, it was historically very possible to present a “we are perfect” aura to the outside world, through tightly controlled marketing communications, and careful hiding of any issues. That is no longer possible, as social media ensures that anything noteworthy can be highlighted by communications outside of your control.<br /><br />But is the goal the opposite – one of “perfect visibility” and total transparency. That is equally unachievable, as there are so many things happening within any organization that it would be impractical to present them all to the outside world.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What is the Goal of Transparency?</span><br /><br />So what are we as businesses trying to achieve with transparency efforts? I would suggest that transparency efforts are really company <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/07/logo-is-not-brand-b2b-marketing-and.html">branding</a> efforts. By being a transparent organization, and becoming known as such, we build the following <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">3 key brand messages</span> in the market:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- No Denial: </span>We’re human, we will make mistakes. Every organization does. However, we will not waste anyone’s efforts in denying those mistakes, we will put all our effort into fixing them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- No Stalling:</span> We recognize that you rely on our products or services, are happy to shine a light on anything that you, the customer, believe needs to be improved and fixed. It will be in the public eye from the first moment, so you don’t have to worry about delay tactics, misdirections, and stalling. It’s in our best interest to quickly and clearly give an answer (even if the answer is not the one you’re hoping for).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- No Surprises: </span>Rather than being surprised, after the sale, as to what the realities (both good and bad) of the solution are, those things will be communicated upfront.<br /><br />Most buyers, when looking at providers, would ideally find a provider who doesn’t deny problems, doesn’t stall on solutions, and doesn’t surprise them with disappointments after the sale. Having those perceptions as part of your company brand can be a very good thing.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So how are Goof-ups a good thing?</span><br /><br />We all make mistakes – those little errors that are painfully embarrassing, but generally don’t cause significant damage. Things like inviting people to an event that took place a month ago, or is on another continent. When we do this, we often cringe, and want to hide from the world. However, this is a great opportunity to display the transparency we want our customers to see and in doing so build our brand and reputation.<br /><br />When a mistake happens, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">be the first</span> to publicize it proactively and apologize – on a company blog, in your community, or via a follow-up email to those affected – whatever is appropriate given the mistake. There’s no need to add extra drama to the situation, but describe what happened, how broad the effects were, where people can find more information (if relevant), and what you’re doing to ensure it doesn’t happen again (even if that is just having an extra coffee in the morning). Over time, your audience’s trust in you will grow as they realize that you are truly running an accountable, transparent organization.<br /><br />Not only will your audience appreciate the transparency, but your own internal organization will realize that shining a light on the topic wasn’t as bad as feared. Developing this culture of transparency takes time, but is immeasurably valuable in a time of crisis. Don’t let the opportunity pass when a small issue takes place.<br /><br />Here’s an example from a recent goof-up that we made (Jim suggested I write this post to talk about the topic), where we (as experienced as we are in all things email marketing) left a hard-coded <a href="http://eloqua.blogspot.com/2008/12/personal-relationship-emails-from-your.html">email signature personalization</a> in a communication. Sure enough, there were no major negative effects as a result of this...<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S6fp1SHGalI/AAAAAAAABgU/Gl8P25qH_E8/s1600-h/OoopsApology.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 327px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S6fp1SHGalI/AAAAAAAABgU/Gl8P25qH_E8/s400/OoopsApology.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451582975559232082" border="0" /></a><br />Do you have any interesting stories of well-handled goof-ups?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/KIaLLdu9wAU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com3http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/08/brand-choice-vision-of-perfection-or.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-37090916297169649562010-08-17T09:00:00.000-04:002010-08-17T09:00:00.255-04:00Text “WhoCares?” to 66863<span style="font-weight: bold;">Is Text Messaging Relevant for B2B Marketers?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(this post first appeared on </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/Text-WhoCares-to-66863-%28NOT-ME%29-66495.aspx">Destination CRM</a><span style="font-style: italic;">)</span><br /><br />There is a lot of discussion about whether text messaging is relevant in a B2B marketing environment. We’ve all seen the stats on the use of text messaging within younger generations, and there is a sense that this will lead to an inevitable rise of the relevance of text messaging for B2B marketers. I would, however, contend that the opposite may be true, and that text messaging may never become relevant in a B2B environment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why Text Message?</span><br /><br />First, let’s look at why text messaging is popular. It is a simple, quick form of communication that is readily available on any device, and usually is very economical. It does a tremendous job of being both real-time (you can get a message right away) and also asynchronous (but you don’t have to respond right away). This, combined with the desire to constantly communicate, has made text messaging a dominant communication mode for teenagers and twenty-somethings everywhere.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Does this Translate to B2B Marketing?</span><br /><br />The question though, is whether this form of communication translates to B2B marketing well enough to be relevant. It helps to look at three main differences.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) Devices:</span> your average executive or manager in a business does not use the same devices as a person in Generation Y. Often, they will be using a Blackberry, an iPhone, or another smartphone. These devices are enabled with many forms of communication, including email and the web, as well as often being full-featured application platforms in themselves. On this application platform, a variety of other communication mechanisms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare continue to evolve.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Communication Style:</span> in a B2B marketing context, the communication is significantly different from the personal communications of Gen Y on their mobile phones. First, in the vast majority of cases, the individual is interacting with an automated system developed by the marketing organization, rather than a person. Second, the communication is usually about requesting information or entering a contest – a point in time interaction – rather than the back-and-forth of teenagers planning an outing or gossiping on the day’s events.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Content Richness: </span>with this style of communication, we also see a richer style of content being used. When a business buyer is compelled to enter a short code, it is often to receive an interesting and valuable piece of content. It is very rare that an offer of sufficient value only requires a few hundred characters of text.<br /><br /><br />Each of these differences removes a major reason to use text messaging in a B2B marketing environment. The audience can, in today’s environment, usually be expected to have a mobile device that is capable of significantly more communication capabilities than just text messaging. Likewise, the point-in-time interaction with an automated system, combined with the richer content experience desired, further push us to leverage the richer capabilities of our audiences Blackberrys, iPhones, and iPads.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mobile Thinking vs. Mobile Devices</span><br /><br />This is not to say that mobile marketing is not relevant, it very much is. However, a separation needs to be made between “mobile thinking” and “mobile devices”. Mobile marketing is about having a compelling offer that can be presented to a business person where they are at that moment – at a tradeshow, an event, or just passing by a billboard – and compel them to take an action. This is both challenging and highly relevant in today’s marketing world. However, nothing requires the marketing thinking in that mobile campaign to use specific device technology such as text messaging and short codes. In today’s environment, there are much better ways to accomplish all the required goals with the modern devices we all carry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">But what about the Teenagers?</span><br /><br />Each generation who enters the work force brings with them new ways of interacting, new norms, and new approaches. This generation will be no different. However, much of the change that impacts the business world is in a way of thinking, rather than a specific technology. MySpace demonstrated a new cultural norm in how we communicate and keep in touch with friends, but the underlying technology quickly lost ground to Facebook. A similar trend is to be expected with mobile. A cultural norm of always being connected, and interacting with the world through a mobile device is clearly part of the current generation, but exactly what devices and what technologies can be expected to change quickly.<br /><br />Rather than associating mobile marketing with text messaging and short codes – its current incarnation – better to put effort into mobile thinking. In all likelihood, the best and most effective technology a person will used to respond to the offer will be a shortened URL, Facebook fan page, or a technology yet to be popularized.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/sMrfnTg-Pf0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com2http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/08/text-whocares-to-66863.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-39644974022541397732010-08-10T09:00:00.001-04:002010-08-10T09:00:05.618-04:00The Sales Team as a Content Testing CrucibleIt's been a while since we've talked much about the topic of <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/08/sales-enablement-key-goal-of-b2b.html">sales enablement</a>, so I wanted to loop back to some interesting peripheral points. Marketing teams generally work hard to provide not just content and messaging that is available online, but also content and messaging that can be <a href="http://eloqua.blogspot.com/2009/07/enabling-sales-with-eloqua-for.html">used directly by sales teams</a> as they guide buyers through the buying process.<br /><br />This usage pattern is very powerful, in that it allows the sales team to use their intuition, insights, and judgments in deciding what content to provide to what buyer at what moment in time. This human judgment can often provide more insight than digital body language alone, and if looked at carefully can provide the marketing team with a good understanding of what content is most valuable.<br /><br />This direct use of content by the sales team provides a valuable content testing crucible for understanding both which messages are being used and which are effective in guiding buyers. For example, in the following chart, you can see that the Product Spec Sheet is not being discovered by the sales team, while the ROI calculator is being discovered by sales, but is not being used. The Video Testimonials content is being used frequently, but is not connecting with the buying audience, while the Technical Specifications, while used less, are well received by the audience they are sent to.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S1-tkjY4ktI/AAAAAAAABZE/yIcO3Lo7moc/s1600-h/ContentAssessment.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 154px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/S1-tkjY4ktI/AAAAAAAABZE/yIcO3Lo7moc/s400/ContentAssessment.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431250519118615250" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This ability to assess content <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">from a sales usage standpoint</span>, as well as from a market reception standpoint enables marketing efforts to be directed at only the most highly leveraged investments.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/SxHe2GFAQb0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com2http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/08/sales-team-as-content-testing-crucible.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-53727540485177689792010-08-03T09:00:00.000-04:002010-08-03T09:00:05.989-04:00Buyer Roles, Buying Stages, and Perception Challenges<div>We looked earlier at the evaluation of <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/08/buying-process-auditing-your-content.html">existing content assets</a> that can be done at each stage of the buying process, and for each buyer role involved.<br /><div><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/Sw_dcv_aMyI/AAAAAAAABMg/GUjdevL-l5I/s1600/MessageEvaluation.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408785163483755298" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; width: 400px; height: 244px;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/Sw_dcv_aMyI/AAAAAAAABMg/GUjdevL-l5I/s400/MessageEvaluation.jpg" border="0" /></a>A similar exercise needs to be done to assess where the <strong><em>need</em></strong> for content is greatest. For each stage in the buying process, and for each role, a list of the perception challenges we face in the market can be created. From here, we will know the<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> ideal messages for buyers to absorb</span>. </div><br /><div>These "messages" can be facts that are <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/passive-discovery-vs-active-discovery.html">actively or passively sought by buyers</a>. Actively sought examples are messages that are searched for, such as the specifications for integrating with a specific third party system. Messages that need to be delivered passively, however, are not actively searched for - such as corrections to misconceptions such as the idea that your solution is not appropriate for larger organizations.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Evaluating Messages</span><br /></div><br /><div>To begin, much like the evaluation of current content assets, a matrix can be created that has buyer roles along the y-axis, and buyer stages along the x-axis. In each box, the messages, information, and perceptions that need to flow out to the market can be listed, along with an assessment (red/yellow/green) of whether you are currently being successful in getting those messages out to the market. The value of this exercise is in its ability to shine a light on areas where you may have a significant messaging gap.<br /><br />Successful marketers are able to inject these messages, perceptions, and criteria throughout the overall education process of a buyer, slowly altering perceptions, guiding the way in which solutions are evaluated, and ensuring that needed information is discovered.<br /><br />The need to get this broad variety of messages out to buyers, now that buyers are in control of their own buying processes, is what has led to the growth in <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/06/goals-of-lead-nurturing.html">nurture marketing</a>, as well as the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/12/publishing-vs-social-media-difference.html">business use of social media</a> as a publishing platform. At each stage, a failure to successfully get these messages out to prospective buyers can quickly lead to buyers failing to progress in their buying process - the three types of <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/03/flying-cars-wall-flowers-and-red-headed.html">leaks in the funnel</a> covered in an earlier post.</div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/A0AunNT5JRw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/08/buyer-roles-buying-stages-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-7763856057479137562010-07-30T09:00:00.001-04:002010-07-30T09:00:09.995-04:00The Results: Is B2B Content "Likeable"A few months back, with Facebook’s announcement of a “Like” button for the web, I decided to run a quick, highly unscientific experiment to <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/05/is-b2b-content-likeable.html">see if B2B content was “likeable”</a>. Put more simply, is B2B content as likely to be shared in the social atmosphere of Facebook as it is to be shared in the more hybrid social/business atmosphere of Twitter.<br /><br />While I will admit that I personally am more active on Twitter than on Facebook, I gave the “like” button a more prominent position at the top of the post to hopefully even the score a little bit. The results are dramatic – mentions of the content of this blog on Twitter generally fall around 20 or so mentions per post. Facebook, however, is lucky to get one or two likes or shares per post.<br /><br />While many factors may explain this discrepancy, I suspect that the most reasonable explanation is the differences in social context between the two networks. Content must fit the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/09/market-relationships-social.html">context of the environment</a> or it feels out of place and awkward, even if the participants are similar.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TFCJnxk5rOI/AAAAAAAABug/GDnAQtlqthI/s1600/B2BContentLikeable.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 242px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TFCJnxk5rOI/AAAAAAAABug/GDnAQtlqthI/s400/B2BContentLikeable.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499046461435391202" border="0" /></a><br /><br />(as part of this post, I should mention that HubSpot's <a href="http://blog.grader.com/">Blog Grader</a> does a wonderful job of tallying all the Tweets/Shares/Likes for a blog)<br /><br />Does this match with your experience of B2B content on Facebook?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/Xyu5Ie1kMGQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com7http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/results-is-b2b-content-likeable.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-34419021990225134352010-07-27T09:00:00.001-04:002010-07-27T09:00:03.594-04:00Marketing Dashboard: Active DiscoveryOne of the most valuable areas to gain an understanding of is the current state of how your prospects <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/passive-discovery-vs-active-discovery.html">actively discover</a> your company and your solutions. The richness of insights that can be gained with a deep understanding of how buyers are using search is nearly without parallel. Each insight allows you to guide investments in a way that maximizes their effectiveness in driving your revenue performance.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Basics of Discovery</span><br /><br />The first area to look at is the set of 10 or 12 “main terms” that buyers most commonly associate with your solution category or industry. These are the main search terms that would ideally lead prospective buyers to your web properties. A dashboard comparison of both the number of searches being performed on each search phrase (the search engines' webmaster tools provide this information quite readily), and the number of visitors to your content based on those main terms gives a very good understanding of if you are successfully being discovered through this avenue. A few powerful insights can be gained here that allow a reallocation of investments:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- Need More Category Awareness? </span>The raw number of searches being performed gives a good indication of the upper limit of your success with active awareness efforts such as search engine marketing or search engine optimization. Broader awareness efforts such as analyst and public relations may be needed to increase interest in your solution category if this is the case.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- Are you Being Discovered?</span> The number of visitors, and more importantly the percentage of visitors, who reach your site for each search term gives you a good indicator of how well your paid and organic search efforts are performing against each term. If a term is performing poorly, either an investment in search engine marketing against that term, or a focus on content around that term may improve your chances of being actively discovered by buyers seeking information on that term<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERpxx_R_hI/AAAAAAAABuQ/S9_CReZiXtI/s1600/SearchesVsVisitors.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERpxx_R_hI/AAAAAAAABuQ/S9_CReZiXtI/s400/SearchesVsVisitors.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495633749252111890" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Deeper Searches</span><br /><br />As looked at earlier, however, the way in which <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/02/deep-searches-and-content-proliferation.html">buyers seek information</a> is changing. With the average search phrase being more than three words in length, it is equally important to understand what is happening with the broader universe of search phrases being used by buyers. With a robust content strategy, the raw list of search phrases that are used by buyers to find you can be quite instructive in itself. However, as a high level dashboard to provide an understanding of the current state of your revenue performance, the best way to view the longer tail search phrases being used is to have it provide insight into what buyer stage your audiences can be loosely categorized into.<br /><br />To understand this, divide the searches that guide visitors to your website into four main categories:<br /><br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Navigational:</span> searches that are simply a replacement for typing in your website URL, usually just your company name<br /><br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Main Terms:</span> searches for the main search terms you have deliberately optimized against<br /><br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Long Tail (branded):</span> deeper searches, often with multiple words in the search phrase, or for specific content, and with your company or brand name in the search phrase<br /><br />- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Long Tail (unbranded):</span> deeper searches, as above, but without your company or brand name in the search phrase<br /><br />This dashboard view provides some rich insights into how well your company and solutions are being actively discovered. First, the relative amounts of visitors who discover your offerings based on long tail phrases vs main terms provides an indication of whether your content marketing strategies are working effectively. Given that the majority of searchers use lengthy search phrases, if the long tail columns are not larger than the main term and navigational columns, there is very likely an opportunity to be discovered by many buyers who are actively seeking solutions such as yours that is being missed. An increased investment in content creation may be warranted.<br /><br />Second, a comparison of your relative strength between long tail search phrases with and without your brand name (ie, “Sourcefire intrusion detection products” vs. “intrusion detection system comparison”) provides an understanding of whether the buyers discovering you tend to be more at an education stage (understanding the category) or have moved more into the discovery stage and are looking to better understand your specific products.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERpxYbbGSI/AAAAAAAABuA/rhlJflXCfk4/s1600/SearchVisitorsByCategory.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 241px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERpxYbbGSI/AAAAAAAABuA/rhlJflXCfk4/s400/SearchVisitorsByCategory.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495633742390827298" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Of course, overall trends are also very much of interest. The effectiveness of natural search or content marketing strategy grows slowly over time, and its success is best observed by following the trend in these high level numbers over time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Paid vs. Organic Search </span><br /><br />In order to deepen the insight gained from these views of your prospects’ active discovery of your content, it is important to understand what is driven by paid search (SEM) and what is driven by organic search (SEO) efforts in order to better coordinate efforts between them. Most B2B marketing organizations invest in paid search campaigns to drive awareness, and with most if not all of these efforts there is an ability to differentiate between traffic driven to your site via paid efforts vs. natural search efforts.<br /><br />By splitting these two sources of traffic apart, and understanding the trends in each, you can better understand the performance of two very different categories of marketing investment. Paid search is predominantly a financial investment, and the results are generally directly in proportion to the monies invested (with a reasonable variation based on the skill of the search engine marketing team, of course). For this reason, you should expect the trend line of visitors from paid search to map closely to your SEM investments.<br /><br />Organic search efforts, however, are very different. Effort, mostly in the form of time to create and promote great content, is invested, and slowly builds credibility with the search engines and with influencers in the industry. Consistent, meaningful investments in this avenue with therefore result in a slowly but steadily growing number of visitors driven by organic search results.<br /><br />For this reason, a combination of investments can be very useful. Paid search (SEM) investments can be made in areas that are new, where results are weak, or where a short term boost is needed. Investments in content and influence to drive organic search results can be done over time in core areas of focus.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERpxtyXJ6I/AAAAAAAABuI/C9aFPcKyf5k/s1600/PaidVsOrganicSearchVisitors.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 242px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TERpxtyXJ6I/AAAAAAAABuI/C9aFPcKyf5k/s400/PaidVsOrganicSearchVisitors.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495633748124182434" border="0" /></a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/oWDekA2jjUA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com4http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/marketing-dashboard-active-discovery.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-60128317970039322802010-07-20T09:00:00.001-04:002010-08-17T14:53:38.846-04:00Evaluating Marketing Automation - 10 Questions To AskThe market for <a href="http://www.eloqua.com/topics/marketing-automation.html">marketing automation software</a> is doing very well these days. This has lead to an unprecedented variety of options for marketers to choose from, and the range of options can be dizzying. While many of the discussions can focus on software and feature/function comparisons, this is only one element of success. To be truly successful, you need focus on the people, process, and technology changes with equal energy. As a big believer in the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/11/saas-social-media-and-economics-of.html">economics of smart buyers</a>, I wanted to share ten question areas that are key to dive into when evaluating a marketing automation investment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA55is5qUdI/AAAAAAAABqs/352yODhU06Y/s1600/QuestionsToAsk.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 365px; height: 249px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA55is5qUdI/AAAAAAAABqs/352yODhU06Y/s400/QuestionsToAsk.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480451433631994322" border="0" /></a>The people and process elements of the investment are often the most interesting. Some organizations have the skills in house to make the needed business process changes, and some organizations are more comfortable bringing in outside expertise in order to facilitate discussions, avoid mistakes, and gain consensus on the changes.<br /><br />If you have not gone through this process before, you will want to ask your team, your consulting partner, or your chosen software vendor some deep questions in order to ensure that you will be able to succeed with your software implementation.<br /><br /><blockquote style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">There are no "right" answers to look for, but these are areas to discuss, debate, and understand. These questions will differ based on your business and your team, but the following list of ten questions will hopefully get you started.</blockquote><br /><br />Ten questions to ask your team, your services partner, or your software vendor, in order to highlight key questions, process issues, and areas of concern:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) How will we define a qualified lead for sales?</span><br /><br />Having sales buy in to your definition is crucial, but reaching agreement between marketing and sales on the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/06/lead-scoring-eight-critical-questions.html">definition of a qualified lead</a> is not as easy as it seems. What mistakes can be avoided? How will you score explicit (who) and implicit (how interested) activity? Are there multiple product lines that need to be scored separately?<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) What is marketing's service level agreement with the sales team?</span><br /><br />How are leads routed to sales? Are there overlays for strategic accounts, specific product lines, or geographies we need to take into account when routing leads? How will these be handled? How is routing in “large” geographies like New York city or California handled – zip code? Area code? How quickly do leads need to get to sales? What happens when leads are passed to sales – does sales have a specific time frame for follow-up? What if this is missed, are <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/05/lead-scoring-importance-of-clawbacks.html">leads clawed back</a>?<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) What do we do with leads that are not yet ready for sales?</span><br /><br />Can we establish a <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/06/goals-of-lead-nurturing.html">lead nurture program</a>? Do we have the right content? How will we monitor whether the audience is losing interest? How will we make sure we are not <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-much-is-too-much-frequency.html">over/under-communicating</a> to each person? Do we have the content in place to guide buying criteria over time as we nurture?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4) How will our marketing automation data and CRM data integrate seamlessly?</span><br /><br />What if a person doesn’t exist in the CRM system? What if they exist multiple times? If a person is influenced by multiple campaigns, how does this appear? How is digital body language presented to our sales team? How do the <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/10/salesmarketing-integration-technology.html">data, activities, and process</a> aspects of the integration work together with our business?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5) How good is our data? How good does it need to be?</span><br /><br />Are our titles/geographies/industries/revenues all standardized and normalized? Is new data from lists, web forms, CRM systems, and tradeshows standardized? Are we building rules for personalization, segmentation, lead scoring, or lead routing on top of data that is not standardized? Are there best practices for building a <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-contact-washing-machine-must-be-in.html">contact washing machine</a> that we want to leverage?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6) Do we need to add data from external sources?</span><br /><br />Are we going to ask prospects for every piece of information we need? Can we leverage sources like Dunn &amp; Bradstreet to append data and avoid asking excess questions? Where in the process will we do this? What do we do about internally sourced info like sales territories or geographic regions – how can we append this data if we need to? Do we have an understanding of how to <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/06/data-quality-balancing-customer.html">balance the customer experience</a> between asking for too much, and too little data?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7) Do we understand how to maximize email deliverability?</span><br /><br />How will we ensure that our emails are delivered? Do we have the right people to understand what technologies need to be in place to <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/02/all-you-never-cared-to-know-about.html">maximize email deliverabililty</a>? Do we have the right relationships with ISPs and policy boards? Will emails appear to come from us, or from a third party? Can we allow our audience to manage their own preferences? What are the best approaches to use? What metrics will we look at to understand and <a href="http://eloqua.blogspot.com/2009/07/perfecting-delivery-and-viewing-of-your.html">report on email deliverability</a> to see if we’re starting to encounter problems?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8) What analysis and dashboards will we present to management?</span><br /><br />What are our key metrics? What industry benchmarks will we compare to? How will we define the stages of the buying process? How will we measure each of those stages? If there are many touchpoints in an overall buying process, how do we measure the effectiveness of an individual campaign? What will our <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/09/marketing-dashboards.html">executive marketing dashboards</a> look like?<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9) Where are we going? What is our strategy and roadmap for success?</span><br /><br />Is there a<a href="http://marketinginsights.eloqua.com/thedemandlifecycle/"> marketing maturity framework</a> we are using in order to guide our progress year over year? Do we know where we are currently on that framework? Do we have a plan for how we are going to make progress each quarter/year? Is management bought in to the goals?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10) How well do we understand the needs of our international colleagues?</span><br /><br />Do we understand the cultural difference in <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/10/marketing-automation-in-europe-and-asia.html">marketing to each geography</a> that we need to be aware of? Do we understand the regulatory differences in terms of permission and data management? How are we going to deploy a single platform to our international team? Do we understand the best approaches?<br /><br /><br />A few of these questions may not be relevant to your business, but many of them will, and they will take the discussion beyond feature comparisons in software platforms and into the realm of what it will take to truly drive success in your business. By taking a deep dive into each of these areas, you will gain a better understanding of your own needs, and the capabilities of various providers in meeting those needs. By doing so, you will move yourself one step closer to success.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/81C0nzV9eLk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com2http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/evaluating-marketing-automation-10.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-70548386279776225402010-07-13T09:00:00.000-04:002010-07-13T09:00:04.659-04:00Trust, Reputation, and Inside SalesThere is a significant shift underway in how we establish and build trust. Craig Newmark (of Craigslist fame) discussed this transition in quite some detail in <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/04/06/craig-newmark-social-networks-are-shifting-the-balance-of-power/">an article on GigaOm</a> that's worth a read.<br /><br />The shifting of how trust is built has numerous profound implication for society in general, but more specifically, it is causing significant shifts in the way that people buy. While the general evolution of buyers is causing some <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/09/relationship-sales-and-todays-new-buyer.html">challenges for field sales teams</a>, the evolution of trust is opening up new opportunities for inside sales teams.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA6Fg3iamNI/AAAAAAAABq0/qwqz913Hpmc/s1600/OldPhone.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 159px; height: 221px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA6Fg3iamNI/AAAAAAAABq0/qwqz913Hpmc/s400/OldPhone.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480464596267079890" border="0" /></a>As the emphasis on face-to-face interaction as a way to build trust decreases in lieu of other ways of building trust, the need to be “in the field” also decreases. It is unlikely that field sales as a discipline will disappear any time soon, the economic bar at which a face-to-face interaction is “necessary” is in the middle of a dramatic shift.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trust and Economics</span></span><br /><br />The amount of trust we put into a vendor has a strong relationship with the size of a deal we are willing to sign. The economic value must of course be there, but without the element of trust, the deal is unlikely to close. This trust shift therefore has major implications on the size of deals that are likely to be closable through an inside (over the phone/web) sales model.<br /><br />Whereas historically, inside sales teams would generally close deals with an average selling price (ASP) of below $20,000, these teams are now able to close deals at much larger ASPs. Some organizations are seeing effective use of inside sales up to $100,000 in ASP. This shift towards an inside sales model reduces both the cost and complexity of the sales process, and in doing so opens up a significant economic opportunity.<br /><br />David Skok of Matrix Partners wrote an excellent piece that looked at <a href="http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/sales-complexity/">sales cycle complexity</a> as a driver of the economics of a business that explores this concept in great detail. His article is well worth a read, but the short story is that any reduction in sales cycle complexity (such as moving from a field sales model to an inside sales model) can remove an order of magnitude from your overall costs (and hence required price points).<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trust and Reputation</span></span><br /><br />Inside sales teams are able to develop the level of effectiveness that is being seen in recent times by building trusted relationships through online interactions and presence in communities, and understanding key players in the buying committee through LinkedIn and other online tools.<br /><br />These teams also relying on their company's reputation to a large amount. That company reputation, if built on a foundation of <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/03/membership-has-its-privileges-best.html">corporate openness and transparency</a>, can contribute greatly to the amount of trust prospective buyers are willing to give to the salesperson they are dealing with.<br /><br />Although face-to-face interactions remain immensely valuable in building trust, and will remain necessary for very large transactions, the efficiencies of the inside sales model give it a significant advantage in smaller transactions. This efficiency win, combined with the new ability to build trust through means other than eye contact, are moving inside sales in many organizations from small transactions to much larger transactions. This trend is likely to continue as the communication tools and trust-building approaches continue to tip the balance in favour of the inside sales model.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/Ij50FyZB5Vo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com3http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/trust-reputation-and-inside-sales.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-85028847791138293362010-07-06T09:00:00.002-04:002010-07-06T09:00:04.283-04:004 Quick Steps to Understand Search DiscoverabilityWe are not all natural search experts, nor should we be. There is a lot of art and science to the field that makes it worthy of having a specialist on your marketing team focus on consistently. However, that does not mean understanding how well you are performing is outside of the reach of non-experts.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA53h4ufHpI/AAAAAAAABqk/yMwak4-K2n0/s1600/4Steps.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 314px; height: 356px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA53h4ufHpI/AAAAAAAABqk/yMwak4-K2n0/s400/4Steps.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480449220603223698" border="0" /></a>Here are 4 quick steps to understand how well you are performing. Only step 4 requires any tools or techniques that are not immediately available.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 1: What Will Buyers Look For?</span></span><br />Define a list of around 10-15 terms that, when buyers are searching for them, you would ideally be discovered. This requires putting yourself in the mindset of a buyer and avoiding any “internal speak” or terms that are not the most common terms. As an example, buyers generally search for “laptops”, even if you happen to call them “netbooks” internally.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One Step Further:</span> To take this a step further, think about how buyers might “broaden” the term slightly and expand each of your 10 terms. For example, while “<a href="http://www.eloqua.com/">marketing automation</a>” is a key phrase for us, buyers may be looking for a “marketing automation platform” or “<a href="http://www.eloqua.com/topics/marketing-automation.html">marketing automation software</a>”.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 2: Where Are You Ranked?</span></span><br />For each of the terms in your list of 10-15, do a quick search on Google and/or Bing. Find the first piece of content from your web properties, and record the rank. Search rankings change over time and by location, but this will give you a sense of <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/10/natural-search-in-b2b-marketing.html">whether you are discoverable</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One Step Further: </span>While you are doing this exercise, it can be interesting to jot down the search ranks of your main competitors so you can compare your performance to theirs over time.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 3: Who’s Looking?</span></span><br />Go to <a href="http://www.google.com/trends">Google Trends</a> and look up each phrase in order to understand rough volumes of searches. You will likely find that buyers tend to look for some phrases more often than others. This gives you a relative volume, but will help you understand what is important.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One Step Further:</span> Narrow your analysis by country. You may find that the phrases used differ significantly by country.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Step 4: When Are You Found?</span></span><br />Look at the people who land on your site from a search, and categorize them by the search phrase used. For each of your 10 main phrases, <a href="http://eloqua.blogspot.com/2009/03/using-search-queries-to-understand.html">how many people are finding your content</a> each month. At a raw traffic level alone, this can provide a lot of insight into the success of your efforts to get content ranked on the search engines.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One Step Further</span>: Traffic is great, but understanding who these visitors are and whether they progress towards being marketing qualified leads and ultimately revenue is even more of interest. For each <a href="http://eloqua.blogspot.com/2010/04/closing-loop-on-paid-search.html">search term, see how many leads, opportunities, and dollars of revenue</a> are ultimately created.<br /><br /><br />Performing well in the natural/organic search results requires a good understanding of search optimization techniques, and a robust discipline of content creation. However, understanding the basics of natural search performance is both accessible to all without any technical knowledge or tools, and important to understand in analyzing whether your buying funnel has any challenges with discoverability.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/qY7dMPvj3os" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com0http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/07/4-quick-steps-to-understand-search.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-10366400216042755832010-06-29T09:00:00.002-04:002010-06-29T09:00:00.623-04:005 technology trends every software marketer needs to know aboutYou don’t build products, write code, design architectures, or fix bugs. So why on earth should you want to be aware major trends that are happening in the software development space?<br /><br />Because these current trends are big, transformative, and are changing the nature of how software is built, delivered, and sold. As a B2B marketer in the software space, these trends will likely have a major impact on how you do your job, or whether your job exists in the coming year or two. These trends are crucial to understand in order to see potential new opportunities, anticipate competitive threats, and be in front of emerging trends.<br /><br />Here are 5 new trends in the software development landscape that will likely have a significant effect on our role as marketers of software:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA5d4_5fHDI/AAAAAAAABqU/Qbe2UXmJWXI/s1600/LegoCastle.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 356px; height: 265px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TA5d4_5fHDI/AAAAAAAABqU/Qbe2UXmJWXI/s400/LegoCastle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480421030363077682" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) Development Speed: </span><br />Looking back at software development in ancient times – like the early 2000s – it was *much* slower than it is today. This is not a “back in my day” rant, it’s just the nature of the business. Software, in many ways, works like Lego. You work with building blocks to create something. However, much like Lego, the building blocks evolve over time, and new pieces are developed that snap in quickly to do a task that used to take many weeks of coding.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Note for Marketers:</span> Expect new capabilities in your space to pop up, fully formed, much more rapidly than they did just a few years ago.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Selling without Transactions:</span><br />Once you convince someone that your product is worthy, the “transaction” part of the sale has always been real work; taking credit cards, establishing AR departments, dealing with credit scores. However, major platforms like the iTunes purchase network that sits behind iPods, iPhones, and iPads makes this disappear. Sure, Apple gets a hefty cut, but a software developer does not need to build any “transaction” capabilities.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Note for Marketers:</span> Brainstorm on how your business model might be attacked by a new entrant, with very low costs, selling $0.99 transactions.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Devices Everywhere: </span><br />The proliferation of high-end mobile devices like the iPhone, Droid, and <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/01/6-things-ipad-means-for-b2b-marketers.html">iPad</a> means that developing location-aware, mass-market software is, for the first time, very viable. Expect these capabilities to challenge the way in which we think about the “standard set of capabilities” of the markets that we are in.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Note for Marketers:</span> Analyze whether your technology could benefit from location-awareness in any way. Someone will be trying this angle.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4) Connections Everywhere: </span><br />While we have heard about technical stuff like Web Services, APIs, and REST for a long time, it has always been squarely in the realm of the technologists. The important trend to be aware of now, as marketers, is that finally this trend has reached critical mass. Nearly all major platforms now have robust ways of hooking into each other quickly, easily, and seamlessly. Think about how prevalent the Facebook “Like” button has become as it is “snapped in” to websites around the world, bring a small element of Facebook functionality to those websites.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Note for Marketers: </span>Assess whether a competitor might leapfrog you by “snapping in” capabilities from an ecosystem of providers. Assess whether similar opportunities exist for your team to leapfrog others in your space.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5) Innovating in the Cloud: </span><br />There’s been a lot of buzzword confusion when it comes to “Cloud” these days, as it seems like every vendor is renaming themselves a “Cloud” vendor. However, there’s one very interesting new trend to watch – the ability for developers to quickly create and deploy new applications on platforms like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, with only monthly costs, means that we can expect a faster pace of interesting new innovations in the SaaS space. While some of these innovations will be stand-alone software applications, many of them will be quick add-ons and enhancements to existing software.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Note for Marketers:</span> Look for ways that your ecosystem of clients and partners can help you innovate and explore new areas and verticals through add-ons and extensions, rather than exploring this all in-house.<br /><br /><br />Things are changing rapidly in the development space, and while much of this change is not worth being aware of, these 5 major trends may have influences that extend well beyond the bits and bytes of software development.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/oWLCMTdbo5c" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com1http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/06/5-technology-trends-every-software.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7794386793170803972.post-3684217383183198562010-06-22T09:00:00.000-04:002010-06-22T09:00:01.671-04:006 Ways For Marketing to Help with Social Media<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TAQV-Myh3UI/AAAAAAAABp0/uNyynYpezRM/s1600/AtlasStatue.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 227px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QT7_Lm5Yssg/TAQV-Myh3UI/AAAAAAAABp0/uNyynYpezRM/s400/AtlasStatue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477527205118598466" border="0" /></a>I can almost hear the comments already - shouldn't Marketing be "doing" social media, not "helping" with social media?<br /><br />Yes.<br /><br />Sort of.<br /><br />But there's more to it than that.<br /><br />The problem is that in many marketing teams, there's "marketing" and then there's "social media". The "marketing" group believes strongly in social media, and agree that it's crucial, but what they "do" is run events, launch promotions, spend ad budgets, and optimize keywords. The "social media" person manages the Twitter handle, the Facebook page, and the blog.<br /><br />I might be oversimplifying, but this problem is one I've seen often enough to generalize.<br /><br />The reason is that most B2B marketing teams are not set up to truly invest in social media. Most are organized more around <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/04/flywheel-and-lightning-strike.html">"lightning strike" rather than "flywheel"</a> investment patterns, and often marketing teams do not contain the real <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2009/12/content-gap-lead-nurturing-and-content.html">subject matter experts needed as content creators</a> for great social media efforts.<br /><br />This means that the "marketing" folks generally work with two major levers:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- A Budget</span> for campaign spend (ads, search keywords, event promotions, show attendance)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">- A Marketing Database</span> of interested or potentially interested prospects<br /><br />Because they don't fit into these two major levers, the "social media" person's efforts often feel a bit disconnected from the major promotions being run.<br /><br />So what can be done?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6 Ways Marketing Can Invest in Social Media</span><br /><br />Smart marketing teams are applying these two major levers to turbocharge their social media efforts in 6 ways:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1) Content as Advertisement:</span> Instead of spending ad budgets to promote high level branding ad spots, smart marketers are <a href="http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/06/content-as-advertisement.html">spending ad budgets to share the rich content</a> their team is creating with a much broader audience of potential viewers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2) Social Content as Nurturing:</span> Rather than creating separate content for each nurture campaign or newsletter, leveraging the best content that the team has created (measured by the number of tweets, for example) gives you a sure win in terms of audience engagement, and lets your content be discoverable by the broader audience in your marketing database.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3) Hiring for Content Creators: </span>If the subject matter experts in your organization are not creating a steady stream of rich content, hire a journalist to facilitate the process (credit for this idea goes to <a href="http://www.webinknow.com/">David Meerman Scott</a>). A daily stream of interesting and inspiring content should be no problem for a professional.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4) Sourcing Data for Insight:</span> If the ideas for what to write about are running dry among your content creation team, fund a survey to provide data and insights on topic areas that they suggest. Most organizations surprise themselves with how much mileage they can get out of unique and interesting survey data.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5) Fanning the Flames of Engagement:</span> When your subject matter experts do write content, the marketing team can fan the flames of engagement. Sharing and promoting each new piece of content in the networks it's relevant to (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Delicious, etc) helps build awareness, and motivates your subject matter experts to continue creating more great content.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6) Leveraging Search to Showcase Content:</span> Rather than use your search marketing budget to drive traffic from the same set of terms to the same set of landing pages, leverage your search budget to help each blog post, video, or eBook "get found". The content on each post is very likely long-tail or niche oriented, so the traffic volumes for each one will not be large, but the relevance will be very high.<br /><br /><br />Done well, the marketing team facilitates the growth of a healthy and vibrant community that is aware of and engaged with the rich, relevant content your subject matter experts and social media team are creating.<br /><br />While the flywheel vs lightning strike dynamic is a real challenge, these investment options allow marketing teams to work in a coordinated fashion towards true social media success.<br /><br />What have you done to get the "marketing" and "social media" people on your marketing team to operate in a more coordinated way?<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DigitalBodyLanguage/~4/NlvJjfdjWOQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Steven Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06376596253100522418noreply@blogger.com1http://digitalbodylanguage.blogspot.com/2010/06/6-ways-for-marketing-to-help-with.html